Abstract
A combined bioinformatic and genetic approach was used to conduct a systematic analysis of the relationship between ribosomal protein genes and Minute loci in Drosophila melanogaster, allowing the identification of 64 Minute loci corresponding to ribosomal genes.
Highlights
Mutations in genes encoding ribosomal proteins (RPs) have been shown to cause an array of cellular and developmental defects in a variety of organisms
Identification of D. melanogaster ribosomal protein genes In order to conduct an exhaustive survey of Drosophila cytoplasmic ribosomal protein (CRP) and mitochondrial ribosomal protein (MRP) genes, we first performed a series of BLAST searches using human RP sequences as queries, because both CRPs and MRPs have been well-characterized in humans [5,6]
D. melanogaster genes were named or renamed according to the standard metazoan RP gene nomenclature proposed by Wool and colleagues [5,58,59] and approved by the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee [18], whilst still conforming to FlyBase [60] conventions - that is, CRP genes are given an 'Rp' prefix and MRP genes have an 'mRp' prefix
Summary
Mutations in genes encoding ribosomal proteins (RPs) have been shown to cause an array of cellular and developmental defects in a variety of organisms. Ribosomes are sophisticated macromolecular machines that catalyze cellular protein synthesis in all cells of all organisms. Bacteria possess a single type of ribosome composed of three rRNA molecules and typically 54 RPs. All eukaryotic cells, in contrast, contain at least two distinct types of ribosomes: cytoplasmic ribosomes (cytoribosomes) and mitochondrial ribosomes (mitoribosomes). Cytoribosomes are found on the endoplasmic reticulum and in the aqueous cytoplasm They translate all mRNAs produced from nuclear genes and perform the vast majority of cellular protein synthesis. Mitoribosomes consist of only two rRNA molecules and up to 80 mitochondrial RPs (MRPs) They are located in the mitochondrial matrix and synthesize proteins involved in oxidative phosphorylation encoded by those few genes retained in the mitochondrial genome. Distinct small and large ribosomal subunits exist that join together during the translation initiation process to form mature ribosomes capable of protein synthesis. (See references [3,4,5,6] for general reviews of ribosomal structure and function.)
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